Gratitude And Beauty

You cannot be grateful and feel the lack. The two cannot exist at the same time. When you feel grateful, you feel full. When you feel lack, grumbling begins from some corner. If you feel grateful, gratitude will increase in you and you will be given more. If you keep on grumbling, the negativity in you will increase. Jesus said, "For those who have not, what little they have will be taken from them. And to those who have, more will be given. And more. And more." This is the law of the nature. For those who do not have this knowledge, there is no way to get out of their grumbling. It becomes a habit.

This applies to relationships too. If you love someone, know that nothing is lacking. Trust that they also love you very much. If you doubt someone's love, your doubt grows no matter what you receive from them. If you want to be close to someone, first begin to feel that person is already close to you. When you ask people, "Do you trust me?" you are doubting their trust. When you are in doubt about a trust, you grow in doubt -- and there is no limit to it.

Whatever is, that grows. If you sow a seed, that seed will grow. If the seed itself is lack, then lack is what grows. Today you feel a lack, and tomorrow you will feel some other lack, and then in a year, even if all these things are provided, still you will feel some lack. Observe carefully and see what you have been given. Then you become grateful. In gratefulness, everything that supports life grows. When people grumble all through life, their minds don't focus properly. Naturally, they tend to lose out. Even on the material plane, when consciousness is flooded with lack, lack grows. But if you feel you have plenty, plentifulness grows.

This understanding of consciousness is important. Consciousness is the power, energy, beauty and wealth that permeates all creation. This entire creation is full of life -- it abounds in the trees, birds, animals, rivers and stones. Without it, not a blade of grass can move. Without it, there can be no progress. Without it, there is no beauty.

One of the most precious faculties the human body possesses is recognition of beauty. The basis of creation is beauty. In the Vedic tradition, the entire creation is seen as nothing but waves of beauty. Truth is a quest of the intellect, but beauty is felt with the heart. Intellect analyses, is curious to know what is inside the flower, how it grows, what season it comes up in but the heart doesn't care about this detailed knowledge.

Beauty comes in many forms. Spring has its own beauty. In midsummer everything is green and full. And in autumn, the color of the falling leaves is spectacular. "Wow! This is so wonderful!" -- an appreciation of beauty wells up in the heart and takes over the whole being.

The very process of maintaining beauty is beautiful. Water rises as vapor and forms clouds on the Great Lakes -- and the Great Lakes flow into Niagara Falls. Without that process, the water would flow down once and the Falls would disappear. It would be like the fireworks on the Fourth of July -- they last for some time and then are over. But in creation, a rainbow comes and then it comes again and again and again. Underneath what has been created with so much beauty, there is a maintenance principle that sustains this phenomenon.

It is all pervasive, this beauty. Life cannot be a celebration, cannot be joyful, cannot be fulfilling, if there are no waves of beauty. This Thanksgiving, as you celebrate and rejoice with your loved ones, observe the richness in your life. Observe the wealth that nature has given you. Let the gratitude in you rise and let the waves of beauty wash you.